tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511287360736749230.post2510670732680029889..comments2014-10-19T18:22:24.681+03:00Comments on Musings from a Square Peg: Liberating LimitationsIlananoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511287360736749230.post-64085473939805681122007-11-07T00:44:00.000+02:002007-11-07T00:44:00.000+02:00My response is hereMy response is <A HREF="http://iiipages.blogspot.com/2007/11/limitation-or-liberation.html" REL="nofollow" NAME="response">here</A>3Pageshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15528247302783118976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511287360736749230.post-84233884698097621182007-11-06T17:30:00.000+02:002007-11-06T17:30:00.000+02:00Do you mean that you are willing to limit your dau...Do you mean that you are willing to limit your daughters about Shabbat and Kashrut because you apply the same limitation to yourself, but that you don't want to limit them about gender roles, since you don't apply to yourself the limitations Orthodoxy imposes on women? What if a woman was willing to limit herself this way -- would you then say that that would give her the right to limit her daughters too?<BR/><BR/>What benefits of Kashrut would you explain to your children? How do you explain to them the benefits of Shabbat in terms they can appreciate?<BR/><BR/>What do you mean, there is no Mitzvah involved in keeping rigid gender roles? Would you elaborate?<BR/><BR/>Should our decide whether or not to observe Mitzvot based on if we see a benefit in it? If someone doesn't see a benefit in Shabbat, does that mean that the Mitzvah is not commanded? Or perhaps they'll warm up to the Mitzvah after observing it for a while?SquarePeg613https://www.blogger.com/profile/13870568775480176690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511287360736749230.post-22418341567773333582007-11-06T15:20:00.000+02:002007-11-06T15:20:00.000+02:00The short answer is there is no Mitzva involved in...The short answer is there is no Mitzva involved in keeping rigid gender roles (or at least not one I am willing to accept as the only way of reading the sources).<BR/><BR/>The long answer is that I see a benefit to Shabbat and Kashrut, while I don't see one (or see a negative) in rigid gender roles.<BR/><BR/>I can honestly represent the principles of Shabbat and Kashrut to my children, and teach them the details of why and how. It is true that I also have to explain to them why some people don't keep Shabbat, but I am not asking them to comply with something I am not personally upholding. <BR/><BR/>I am willing to say "we will see with our eyes and there we will not go" but not "you will see with your eyes, I will go but you won't".3Pageshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15528247302783118976noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511287360736749230.post-85326134395845175772007-11-05T23:09:00.000+02:002007-11-05T23:09:00.000+02:00I'm not so keen on giving my kids that message eit...I'm not so keen on giving my kids that message either, when it comes to gender roles. But I don't hesitate to say that regarding other religious issues -- say, Shabbat or Kashrut as just two examples. So in principle, why should this be different?SquarePeg613https://www.blogger.com/profile/13870568775480176690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511287360736749230.post-35996348063767881632007-11-04T00:16:00.000+02:002007-11-04T00:16:00.000+02:00As in many other aspects of gender differences, I ...As in many other aspects of gender differences, I have the intuition that the range of different abilities and tendencies is greater within each gender than between each gender. For example, we all know that men are generally slightly larger physically (and more heavily muscled) than women, but the range of difference between individual men in these aspects is much greater than the difference between the average man and the average woman; concomitantly there are individual women who are bigger and stronger than individual men.<BR/><BR/>So my unresearched assumption is that this state of things is similar in the intellectual and spiritual realm, which is why I feel that the Orthodox response is a 'mitat sdom' (you know the midrash about the 'one size fits all' bed they had in sdom? -- guests were welcome, but only if they fit the bed; if they didn't they would be stretched or clipped until they did).<BR/><BR/>Even in the egalitarian community we both belong to, I think there is a definite tendency for the men to be more active and the women to be more in a support role; especially when they have small children at home. But I would hate to give my children (of either gender) the message that 'you will see with your eyes and there you shall not go'.3Pageshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15528247302783118976noreply@blogger.com